EX-POLICE CHIEF: CITY WITHHOLDING SEVERANCE

Escondido insisting he sign pledge not to run, Maher says

ESCONDIDO 
Former Escondido Police Chief Jim Maher says city officials are withholding $75,000 of his severance package until he signs a document promising not to run for political office.

The allegation is among several points included in a nine-paragraph statement released by Maher on Thursday in which he speaks out for the first time since he suddenly announced his retirement last year.

In the statement, the 57-year-old Maher says he “was never given the option” of keeping his job. However, the statement doesn’t specify who forced him out or why.

Maher also defends the size of his severance package, which was made public Tuesday and included $150,000 in cash that was to be paid in two installments. (Maher says he would have earned far more than that if he had remained in his job until 2015, as he had long planned.)

The former chief said the city recently sent him a letter informing him the second installment won’t be paid unless he agrees not to run for elected office in Escondido and not to endorse any other candidates.

City Manager Clay Phillips said Thursday that city officials have made no such demand.

“That’s absolutely not true,” Phillips said. “The payment was withheld for breach of contract. No one sent him a letter like that. Can you imagine us even doing that?”

Phillips and City Attorney Jeff Epp declined to elaborate on how Maher had breached the severance agreement, which prohibited him from speaking publicly about city business or attending certain kinds of civic events.

Maher said it was never his intention to discuss the details of his severance agreement, or even acknowledge it existed. He said Mayor Sam Abed set the ball in motion by confirming to a U-T San Diego columnist in June that there was such a deal.

In that interview, Abed said he believed the severance agreement prohibited Maher from running for public office because it prevented him from talking about city business.

The American Civil Liberties Union later demanded Escondido release the document, and the city eventually complied.

Abed didn’t return a phone call Thursday.

In a follow-up phone call after Maher released his statement, the former chief said he hadn’t decided whether he’ll run for office in Escondido next year. Maher, a resident of southwest Riverside County, would have to move to Escondido to be eligible.

David Loy, legal director for the local chapter of the ACLU, said Thursday that Escondido would be on dangerous ground if Maher agreed to avoid city politics as part of his severance.

“He’d essentially be banished from civic life in Escondido,” Loy said. “It would violate not only his individual rights, but the rights of the voters.”

Loy said a federal appeals court ruled two decades ago that an East County man could run for the Grossmont Union High School District board even after agreeing to a lawsuit settlement that barred him from running.

“I’ve never litigated the issue, but I think there’s a very serious concern whether this is enforceable,” Loy said.